An assessment and comparison of hearing impaired children's preference for timbre and musical instruments

Journal/Book: Journal of Music therapy. 1991; Silver Spring, Maryland, USA. National Association for Music Therapy. Journal Articles.

Abstract: The purpose of these two studies was to examine the timbre and musical instrument preferences of hearing impaired children. In the first study, 34 children from the state school for the deaf served as subjects. After a 15 minute presentation of six selected instruments, subjects were taken individually into an observation room and allowed to play the instruments for 5 minutes. Total playing time across all subjects indicated preference for the instruments in the following order: trumpet, clarinet, viola, trombone, violin and flute. The data of individual subjects indicated that more time was spent with the violin. Signed responses of subjects indicated that the violin and trombine were preferred. The purpose of study 2 was to examine hearing impaired children's preference for timbre without reference to a musical instrument. Results of the Instrument Timbre Preference test indicated a preference for the clarinet and sax/French horn timbres. Data from theis study corroborated previous studies which indicated that preferences are more apparent in older children and that preferences may have a cultural bias.

Keyword(s): assessment, comparison, children, hearing-impaired, preference, musical-instrument-preference, timbre, hearing-defects, hearing-difficulties, hearing-disorder, hearing-loss.

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